King Arthur

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Now me, I'm more impressed by whoever put the sword there to begin with.

The perfect king, who ruled Britain during a Golden Age with Merlin at his side, but fell to treachery, and now sleeps, waiting for Britain's hour of greatest need. Subject of many a Chivalric Romance, long known as the "Matter of Britain," alongside the Matter of France (stories of Charlemagne's court and wars with the Saracens) and the Matter of Rome (The Trojan War, the Aeneid, Alexander the Great).

There may be a kernel of historical truth to the myth, but it has been obscured by centuries of elaborations. If he existed, the historical Arthur may have been a Romano-British leader (a native Briton, ancestors of the Celtic-speaking Scots, Cornish and Welsh) who fought the invading Saxons after the Roman provincial government collapsed. Documents show that after the Battle of Badon Hill, the Saxon tide was turned back for almost a century, but the records are confused as to of who was in charge of the Britons at the time, if anyone; if he existed, Arthur's realm may have been an outpost of people not-getting-killed. The first surviving reference is from circa 600 A.D., and implies that either the legend or at least the man's reputation was well known even then.

It became very popular during the Middle Ages, during which times it was thoroughly reworked into Chivalric Romance and the Knights of the Round Table became heroic Knights Errant. Even French writers, despite patriotic liking for the Matter of France, agreed that the King Arthur tales were the best ones of Courtly Love. (Also, since nobles and kings claimed to be related to Charlemagne, tales about King Arthur could be used by the French king's competitors, such as the Plantagenets, to whom many of the early epic works were dedicated.)

The themes of Courtly Love and later, the Holy Grail, caused writers to invent entirely new characters to introduce them. The version best known today is Le Morte d'Arthur, the work of Sir Thomas Malory, based on earlier material by Geoffrey of Monmouth and other literary predecessors, including multiple layers of retcons and crossovers.

This version incorporates many originally separate stories about the Knights of the Round Table, and other legends such as Gawaine and the Green Knight, Courtly Love, and the myth of the Holy Grail.

This holds true for the English-speaking world. As far as the French are concerned, Chrétien de Troyes' romances are the most important version of the Arthurian myth and for German-speakers it is the verse epics of the trio of Hartmann von Aue, Wolfram von Eschenbach, and Gottfried von Straßburg, especially Wolfram's Parzival. This is not founded on priority, but also on the superior literary quality of these four authors in comparison with their successors. In general, the way the Arthurian myth is viewed can depend very much on the nationality of the viewer; for people from the British Isles (and by extension, from the rest of the Anglosphere), it usually goes without saying that the Welsh (and English) medieval texts reflect an older and more "genuine" version of the myth than the French ones, even though they were in fact written down later. Here a lot is speculation and inference, as the (presumably mostly oral) traditions on which Geoffrey of Monmouth, Maistre Wace, Chrétien de Troyes and others based their works are lost to history.

Any modern Arthurian story that is not about either a) Lancelot/Guinevere/Arthur/Mordred/Morgan and the subsequent collapse of the court or b) specifically about Merlin, is generally going to be about the Grail Quest, despite dozens of other possible plots. However, Tristram and Iseult (usually under the German forms of their names, Tristan and Isolde) by themselves are also becoming more popular, mainly due to the popularity of romance stories.

The genres used may vary from Historical Fiction (no magic and Saxon hordes as Mooks), to Heroic Fantasy, and the story can be set either in the Dark ages after the fall of Rome or in the present day, when King Arthur has returned.

The main characters of the stories that are collectively known as the Matter of Britain are:

• King Arthur: The Hero, The Captain and Knight in Shining Armor.
• Sir Bedivere: Arthur's oldest companion, besides Kay; Bash Brothers with Kay and vice-versa. As the spotlight shifts to other (newer) characters, both remain Arthur's court officials.
• Sir Kay: Arthur's foster brother, originally a Boisterous Bruiser, later the Butt Monkey; also The Big Guy (literally "The Long Man" in Welsh).
• Galahad: The Messiah and an early Marty Stu.
• Guinevere: The Chick, Damsel in Distress.
• Gawain: Originally The Lancer, then wimpified. by the French. Modern versions are more forgiving, in their own way.
• Percival: The young, naive fool who became a knight and saw the Grail... until later stories had Galahad see it instead.
• Lancelot: The Lancer, The Tragic Hero, The Sixth Ranger, Sailor Earth (He is a latecomer in two senses: first, in that he first appears at the Round Table long after the vast majority of its membership has assembled; and second, the character entered the myth cycle several hundred years after it was first compiled.)
• Morgause: Arthur's half-sister, Mordred's mother, sometimes blended with her sister Morgana.
• Merlin: The original Wizard, Mentor, The Professor, sometimes half-demon. Based on legendary Welsh mystic Myrddin Wyllt, who wandered the woods as a wild haired mystic and converted to Christianity, later adopted as an oracular figure for Arthur, since both of them were basically Welsh; the Welsh maintain separate accounts of the "historical" Myrddin's life and places he visited.
• Morgan Le Fay: Sometimes The Man Behind the Man and would-be Queen, sometimes a Trickster Mentor, almost always an Evil Sorcerer. Except in certain feminist and/or neo-pagan retellings of the stories, in which she's usually the hero and Arthur is an evil patriarchal Christian bastard, or the pawn of same.
• Nyneve/Nimue: Merlin's pupil, and lover. She eventually goes Deceptive Disciple on him and, in the classical version, places him under an enchantments and seals him in a tree or rock. Whether or not this is justified depends on how she and/or Merlin are portrayed. Frequently blended with Morgan for the convenience of having a Composite Character be responsible for all of Arthur's woes.
• Mordred: The Dragon, Arthur's illegitimate son and nephew.
• The Orkney Brothers (Gawain, Agravaine, Gaheris, Gareth and Mordred): Five-Man Band
  • The Hero: Gawain
  • The Lancer: Agravain
  • The Smart Guy: Mordred (though he swaps roles with Agravain later on.)
  • The Big Guy: Gaheris
  • The Chick: Gareth
    • This troper finds the Orkney brothers are rarely presented as a "well oiled" team. When they are (chiefly in French cyclical literature), they are sans Gareth and a pesky, relatively harmless band of dishonorable murderers who have to rely on attacking as a group to do any real harm and are usually just tourney-fodder for whatever hero the author is currently espousing.
• Tristram and Iseult: Star-Crossed Lovers
• Sir Not Appearing In This Film (or Epic, or whatever): Obviously.

There are many other knights of the round table, each with their own complex storyline, and, just in case you thought that wasn't enough, most of the names also have other, wildly different spellings. The worst offenders are probably 'Guinevere', 'Mordred', and 'Iseult', with special mention going to 'Nyneve', who sometimes gets entirely new names such as 'Nimue' and 'Vivien.' (Then again, try telling those names apart in cramped Gothic handwriting.) It's pretty much up to the individual what you chose to call them.

The primary Public Domain Artifacts associated with the myths are:

• Excalibur, which is part of the early legends, originally known as Caliburn. There are two origins to Excalibur: the first, and older tradition, stating that Arthur received it from a surprisingly benign member of The Fair Folk, the Lady of the Lake, after the Sword in the Stone was broken; the second, that Excalibur was the Sword in the Stone from the beginning - this is a more modern origin, as writers thought it simpler to have only one magical sword, rather than two.
  • The only magic power Excalibur was ever traditionally specifically accredited with was glowing brightly, and that not always, but the scabbard was said to stop the wearer from bleeding, making it almost invaluable on the battlefield. It was said that the wielder of Excalibur could never be defeated in combat, but the actual mechanics of how this was possible were never traditionally set in stone (if even stated at all).
  • Insane sharpness is another reasonably-constant quality of the sword
• The Sword in the Stone, which is featured as an entirely different sword than Excalibur/Caliburn in most versions of Arthurian myth.
• The Round Table: Barring Excalibur, the most iconic item in Arthurian Mythology - the freakin' furniture they installed. The congregation of knights are named for it, after all.
  • The Siege Perilous, the last chair of the Round Table to be filled, prophesied to be filled by a knight who would not live long thereafter.
• The Holy Grail, an addition which came to dominate the late medieval version of the myth, though it is often excised in modern works.

There are also a metric ton of other lesser-commonly-known artifacts from the myths. Just a few are:

• The Broken Sword - The Grail Sword
• The Sword of the Red Hilt
• The Shield of Joesph of Arimathea
• The Shield of The Burning Dragon Knight
• The Green Sash
• The Thirteen Treasures of Britain
• The Ship and Armaments of Arthur (including his knife, shield, spear, chain-mail, tabbard, and ship)
• The Shield of Judas Macabee
• Fail-Not, the Bow of Tristan
• The Dispelling Ring of Lancelot
• The Stone of Giramphiel
• Excalibur's ivory scabbard, which could shield life

King Arthur is the Trope Namer for:

• Grail Quest

Tropes used in King Arthur include:

• Absurdly Sharp Blade: King Arthur's sword (called Excalibur or Caliburn or whatnot) is almost always portrayed this way.
• Adaptation Expansion: Oh. Dear. Christ. To call this the greatest example in history is an understatement. As stated above, Arthur (may have) started out as a prominent Celtic chieftain Romano-British warlord and leader of a band of warriors. Think Jason and the Argonauts in fur with Welsh accents. Several centuries and several foreign conquests later, Arthur has his own entire extensive mythology named after him! Also before Malory, come to that.
• Antagonistic Offspring: Mordred in some adaptations. The trope's alternate name is Arthur and Mordred for a reason.
• Bastard Bastard: Mordred, who may be the Ur-example. The illegitimate son of King Arthur and his half sister, who plotted against his father.
• Because Destiny Says So: The sword in the stone and the rise of Camelot
• Bed Trick: Both Arthur and Galahad are conceived this way.
• Big Good: Arthur, at least in the stories that focus mainly on his knights.
• Bittersweet Ending: Arthur's power is broken at the Battle of Camlann and he departs for Avalon to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence from which he'll return when Britain (or France) needs him again. Can be a straight Downer Ending if this note of hope is downplayed.
• Breakout Villain: Mordred, Arthur's nephew/son, and Morgan Le Fay, his half-sister, remain the only villains that are well-known in the Arthur legends, even though there are loads of others. To this day, they are thus considered the biggest villains, with the only one coming a mite close to their status being Lucius, the Emperor of Rome and Big Bad of Book V of Le Morte De Arthur.
• Brother-Sister Incest: In later versions of the story, to add more angst, Mordred is both son and nephew of King Arthur. In earlier stories, he's simply Arthur's nephew, which also makes him Arthur's successor (given that either Arthur or Guenevere are barren). In the earliest Welsh sources, Arthur and Medrawd (Mordred's original name) aren't related at all.
• The Call Left a Message: The Sword in the Stone and the Siege Perilous.
• Celtic Mythology: Has its roots in Welsh legends.
• Changeling Fantasy: Arthur is raised by Sir Ector. Though treated well, he's considered of lower rank than Ector's biological family, who have no idea of his true identity.
• Child by Rape: Both Arthur himself (see Bed Trick above) and Mordred, through rape by fraud.
• The Chosen One: Merlin predicts Arthur's coming in the form of a vision of a red (Celtic) dragon slaying a white (Saxon) dragon.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: It is unsurprising that as Arthurian mythology evolved over the centuries and spread across Europe, many characters faded from existance or were replaced with local variations. Arthur's four sons - Amr, Gwydre, Llacheu and Duran - had all vanished by the 12th century. His full sister Anna became the mother of Mordred (who was not originally related to Arthur); she was eventually replaced by half-sister Morgause, who kept the blood-tie but is a different character entirely.
• Cool Sword
• Courtly Love: From very early on. Much of the medieval popularity of the King Arthur stories stemmed from the troubadours' discovery that these stories contained many elements (such as the rescue of ladies) that could be pressed into service of Courtly Love.
• Damsel Errant
• Death of the Old Gods: Most modern re-tellings have this going on at least in the background.
• Defeat Means Friendship: Lancelot and Galehaut (no, not Galahad).
• Depending on the Writer: Pretty much the textbook example. Arthur and his court have been re-interpreted by generation after generation over the centuries, to the point where any given Arthur would have great difficulty recognizing any of his counterparts.
• Double In-Law Marriage: Brothers Gareth and Gaheris marry sisters Lyonesse and Lynet.
• The Fair Folk: Usually present to some degree.
• Fisher King: Particularly in stories concerning Perceval.
• Five-Man Band
  • The Hero: Arthur
  • The Lancer: Lancelot
  • The Smart Guy: Merlin
  • The Big Guy: Gawain
  • The Chick: Guinevere
• Folk Hero: King Arthur is popular legend in Britain and France.
• Give Me a Sword: Arthur sometimes pulls out the sword without noticing, because Kay sent him to get him a sword.
• The Good King: Arthur is the Trope Codifier
• Grail Quest: Arthur sent his knights to find the Holy Grail, and they would undergo quests to find that cup. Sometimes Galahad and Percival, on finding the Grail after these trials, ascend to heaven.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Merlin is only half human. His father may have a been a Fae, The Devil, an incubus, or no one.
• Heroic Bastard: Most prominently, Galahad, son of Lancelot. Sometimes Mordred, Depending on the Writer. Though he is conceived out of wedlock, Arthur himself is not technically a bastard since his father marries his mother before his birth. In Malory, Arthur also fathers a son named Borre before he meets Guinevere - later a knight of the Round Table.
• Heroic Lineage: Mostyn MS. 117 and Bonedd y Saint, Welsh manuscripts dating from the 12th-13th century, describe Arthur as a direct descendant of Llŷr Lledyeith, who also fathered the heroes of the Mabinogion.
  • This has also been Invoked Trope by "descendants" of Arthur on many occasions. Most notably, Henry VII following the Wars of the Roses, who named his first-born son Arthur and claimed him to be the prophesied second coming who would herald the Golden Age. Might have been cool if he'd lived longer than his dad, but we got Henry VIII instead.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: Possibly Mordred. He is first mentioned (as Medraut) in the 10th-century Annales Cambriae (Annals of Wales) as having been killed in the battle of Camlaun along with Arthur, but the entry is ambiguous as to whether they were fighting on opposing sides.
• I Call It Vera: Not just Excalibur. Most of Arthur's equipment has names, such as his dagger Carnwennan and his spear Rhongomyniad (we told you he was a bloody Welshman).
• Kill'Em All: Almost everyone present at the Battle of Camlann dies, including Arthur in versions where he (later) succumbs to his wounds. Welsh traditions have either three or seven survivors of the battle, but by Malory only Sir Bedivere is left.
• King in the Mountain: Arthur sleeping until his hour comes again.
• Knight Errant: Particularly Gawain, Lancelot, and Galahad. Gawain and The Green Knight is the Trope Namer.
• Knight in Shining Armour: The extent, as with just about every trope associated with King Arthur, depends on the version.
• The Lady's Favour
• Last of His Kind: Merlin is revealed as the last of the shape-changers in his childhood, before Arthur's birth.
• Lawful Stupid: Arthur. So determined to bring about this new Rule of Law idea that he lets himself be used by evil people in the guise of upholding the law.
• Living MacGuffin: Guenevere.
• Loads and Loads of Characters
• The Lost Woods: Where else to go for your quest?
• Love Triangle: Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot.
  • Tristan/Isolde/King Mark as well.
• Merlin and Nimue: The trope maker and namer, as Merlin's relationship with the pupil that betrays him sets the pattern for the relationship between many future mages and their younger, opposite sex pupils.
• The Middle Ages: Nearly every version of the story is set in a mélange of centuries stretching from about 500 to about 1,000 years (or even more) after Arthur's time. Very few are set properly in the period of the late Roman Empire.
• Moses in the Bulrushes / Secret Legacy: The young King Arthur; also an embittered anti-Moses, in the form of Mordred, after Arthur (our hero!) had a lot of babies killed. (Different versions put different twists on this last bit.)
• Multiple Choice Past: Everyone.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Arthur himself, depending on where you believe his name comes from. There are some who have linked it to the old Indo-European word for "bear", whence also Ancient Greek ἄρκτος and Latin ursus, though it was replaced in most northern languages, including English, Old Norse and Russian, by euphemisms (for more details, see Everything Is Worse With Bears). Oh, and as if being named after a bear wasn't Badass enough, that same root word was probably connected to the Proto-Indo-European word for "harm".
• Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: The massacre of the May Day babies.
• Odd Name Out: The Orkney Brothers are Gawain, Gaheris, Gareth, Agravain, and Morded. Want to guess which two put the fall of Camelot into motion by demanding Arthur punish Guinevere and Lancelot for their adultery?
• Offing the Offspring: Arthur tries to do this to baby Mordred, and succeeds years later. In earlier Welsh tradition Athrur kills a son named Amr.
• One Steve Limit: Averted like whoa. There are four distinct Elaines, three of whom are connected to Lancelot: there's Elaine, Lancelot's mother who dies in childbirth; there's Elaine, Galahad's mother who rapes Lancelot because her daddy is an early advocate of eugenics; there's Elaine, the lady of Astolat who goes a bit Alex Forrest for Lancelot and ends up dying from her unrequited love; and then there's Elaine, sister of Morgan le Fay and Morgause, who accomplished less than either of them.
  • It's also apparently common in Arthurian mythos for parents to name their different children the same thing. There's a Sir Ywain and his half-brother, Ywain the Bastard. Leodegrance also pulls this when he names his bastard second daughter Guinevere Guinevak who, later in life, somehow manages to convince the Knights of the Round Table that she's the real Guinevere and her sister the imposter. Note to future authors, when trying to find inspiration for a villain's scheme, The Importance of Being Earnest is not the place to look.
  • There are at least three different Isolts. Tristan only marries Isolt of Brittany because he's in love with Isolt of Ireland and they're both called Isolt. Often the marriage doesn't work out too well, unsurprisingly.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: Why only Arthur can pull the sword in the stone.
• Oracular Urchin: Merlin's first appearance in the legend.
• Phlebotinum Battery: Sir Gawaine is solar-powered, he's strongest in the morning as the sun rises but grows weaker and as it sets.
• A Protagonist Shall Lead Them: Arthur's archetype in pretty much every adaptation.
• Public Domain Artifact: Excalibur/Caliburn, the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, and the Holy Grail
• Public Domain Character: A literal army of them -- See below.
• Rasputinian Death: The Welsh version of the "historical" Merlin says he could only be killed this way.
• Royal Blood
• Sadly Mythtaken: From a Celtic folk hero, to a Post-Roman-Occupation Saxon-battling Welsh king, to an anachronistic Middle Ages King of Britain, the "modern" notion of King Arthur is radically different to the original legends.
• Second Coming: See Bittersweet Ending above.
• Semi-Divine: Merlin is often portrayed as the child of a demon and mortal, although in the original myths he was depicted as something of a fey spirit, so half-fairy was more likely.
• Sole Survivor: Only Sir Bedivere survives Arthur's last battle in Malory. Earlier Welsh legends also have just a few survivors: one warrior was so beautiful that he was mistaken for an angel while another was so ugly that he was mistaken for a devil, and thus they escaped harm.
• Space Whale Aesop: The origin of Merlin: Don't forget to say your prayers, and don't argue with your siblings, or else you'll be raped by Horny Devils while you sleep. Hmm...right.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Every character's name has multiple spellings.
• Supernatural Aid: The Lady of the Lake giving Arthur Excalibur. In versions of the mythos where this actually happens, anyway.
• Stab the Sky: Many depictions of Arthur after pulling the sword out of the stone show him standing like this.
• Starter Villain: Lucius, Emperor of Rome, is pretty much the first major enemy that Arthur has to face as king.
  • In some variations, King Lot (or Loth) is the first major enemy. This is usually depicted in such a way that although Arthur has been proclaimed High King, Lot and a number of other lesser rulers defy him and rebel.
• Sword Plant: How the Sword in the Stone got into the stone.
• Tsundere: Queen Guinevere and Lady Lynette.
• Trial by Combat: One way of settling disputes in the setting, and especially important to protecting the adulterous relationship between Lancelot and Guinevere.
• Turn Out Like His Father: Percival's mother did not want him to become a knight.
• The Worf Effect: Gawain seems to suffer from this a bit - the Johnny-come-lately knights (Lancelot et al.) often establish their badass cred by defeating him.
• World's Most Beautiful Woman: Guinevere
  • In Erec and Enide by Chrétien de Troyes, Enide is ascribed this title.
• Wound That Will Not Heal
• A Year and a Day: The time span in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• You Can't Fight Fate: The fall of Camelot.

Prominent Versions of the Story:

• Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons), traditionally ascribed to Nennius in the 9th century, although it may be much older. While not a story, per se, it contains the oldest written record of Arthur and lists the twelve battles he fought against the invading English. Of note is the fact that Arthur is not depicted as a king here but a dux bellorum, a warlord fighting on behalf of the native kings of Kent. According to Historia Brittonum, Arthur was so successful against the English that they were forced to bring in further troops and kings from Germany, increasing their numbers dramatically until the island of Britain was finally subjugated.
• Pa Gur yv y Porthaur? ("What Man is the Gatekeeper?"): a poem found in the Black Book of Carmarthen, the oldest known list of Arthur's warband and the first mention of Cei and Bedwyr (later to be Kay and Bedivere). Arthur seeks entrance into a fortress, recalling the heroic feats of his retinue for the gatekeeper. This list was expanded on over the centuries, with each tale adding more and more characters from both history and folklore. A decendant is found in How Culhwch Won Olwen, at which point the retinue has swollen to over 260 warriors, not counting fantastic animals.
• Historia Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Britain) by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who is thought to have been of mixed Breton and Welsh stock. Completed ca. 1138.
• Roman De Brut (Romance of Brutus) by Maistre Wace from Jersey, an expanded version of Geoffrey's Historia written for king Henry II of England in French verse and making even greater use of Breton traditions, completed in 1155. The Round Table is mentioned here for the first time.
• Several stories from the Mabinogion, a compilation of prose from several 14th-century Welsh manuscripts. Scholars generally agree that the stories are older, but how much older (and in particular if they are or not older than Geoffrey's Historia or even Chrétien de Troyes' romances) is still a matter of debate. Currently the stories are placed in the years between 1060 and 1200 and it is assumed that the version of the stories of Peredur/Perceval, Geraint and Enid/Erec et Enide, and Owain/Yvain were developed independently by Welsh writers and Chrétien based on the same older sources.
• The Arthurian romances of Chretien De Troyes, written ca. 1170 to 1190 - Erec et Enide, Cligès, Le Chevalier de la Charrette (The Knight of the Cart) aka Lancelot, Yvain, and the unfinished Perceval (Conte du Graal). Literary historians see Chrétien as the first author to treat the legends as fiction. In many ways, he created Arthurian romance and was very influential on other authors.
• Erec and Iwein, Middle High German verse epics by Hartmann von Aue, both based on Chrétien de Troyes.
• Parzival by Wolfram von Eschenbach, from the first quarter of the 13th century. The most successful verse epic of the middle ages (by far the most manuscript copies surviving), a retelling and continuation of Chrétien de Troyes' last Arthurian romance. Wolfram also ties in the story of Percival with two other existing legends, making Parzival the father of Lohengrin, the Knight of the Swan, and establishing Parzival's half-moorish elder brother Feirefiz as the ancestor of Prester John. Wolfram started a prequel epic somewhat misleadingly called Titurel (after the first person mentioned in the text), but did not live long enough to finish it.
• Tristan by Gottfried von Straßburg, a contemporary of Hartmann and Wolfram, based on an older form of the story of Tristan and Isolde by the Anglo-Norman Thomas of England (of which only fragments survive). Gottfried did not finish this "classic" version of a much older story (which originally was not part of the Arthurian myth), so two other Middle High German authors wrote their own endings.
• Lancelot The common label for a cycle of 13th-century French prose epics, originally a trilogy consisting of the so-called Lancelot propre (partly based on Chrétien), the Queste del Saint Graal (The Quest For The Holy Grail, which introduces Galaad/Galahad), and La Mort le Roi Artu and in all likelihood produced by several writers (quite possibly Cistercian monks) according to a general plan. This was followed by two prequels, the Estoire del Saint Graal and the Estoire de Merlin, completing the first cycle to relate the entire story from the beginning of Arthur's rule to his death.
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: A 14th-century English poem, translated by JRR Tolkien, among others.
• The Weddyng Of Syr Gawen
• The Stanzaic Morte d'Arture
• The Alliterative Morte d'Arture
• Syr Launfal
• Le Morte Darthur by Thomas Malory, an Early Modern English compilation of the earlier stories and epics, fusing the French Lancelot cycle with other stories like Tristan and Isolde, completed in 1470 and printed in 1485.
• T. H. White's The Once and Future King

Examples of King Arthur include:

Anime and Manga

• Fate/Zero revolves around mages summoning heroic spirits to help them fight for the holy grail. Since the strength of a summoned hero is proportional to the renown of their legend Arthur is unsurprisingly considered to be one of the perfect saber class summon. Well, almost perfect.
• In an episode of Time Trouble Tondekeman, our time-traveling protagonists accidentally screw up the part where Arthur is supposed to draw the Sword from the Stone, and once they realize who their new-found friend actually is, must set "history" back on track, coincidentally also sparking the British love of footy.
• Vinland Saga has Askeladd, who declares himself to be the descendant of Arthur, and thus the rightful king of Britain.
• Code Geass draws from Arthurian myth, most prominently with Britannia's Super Prototype Humongous Mecha being named for Knights of the Round Table (Lancelot, Gawain) and the presence of the Knights of the Round, described as the Emperor's twelve elite soldiers. There's also Arthur, the stray cat that follows the Lancelot's pilot around, apparently for no other reason than to bite his hand whenever he lets his guard down.

Comic Books

• Camelot is a recurring element in The DCU's Backstory. Characters linked to Arthur's court include:
  • The Demon Etrigan, a fiend from Hell summoned by Merlin to defend Camelot in its final hour against Morgaine le Fey. Morgaine has gone on to become a recurring foe of both Wonder Woman and the Justice League of America.
  • The Shining Knight, a member of the Round Table who was frozen in ice for many centuries (years before Captain America (comics) thawing out with The Avengers was a glimmer in Stanley Lieber's mind) and decided to keep protecting Britain by fighting Those Wacky Nazis.
  • Grant Morrison's Shining Knight book, a part of his Seven Soldiers maxi-series, revealed that the King Arthur myth keeps repeating throughout history: the Shining Knight in question is thrown forward in time from a more Celtic rendition into modern Los Angeles.
  • The Silent Knight, another one of Arthur's knights and a previous incarnation of Hawkman and the (adopted) ancestor of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent.
  • Madame Xanadu, who was once Merlin's lover and Morgaine's sister, Nimue.
  • According to The Books of Magic, Arthur himself slumbers beneath the earth in Fairyland, awaiting the day Britain needs him again.
• In Marvel Comics:
  • The backstory of The Black Knight.
  • Probably the most famous King Arthur story in the Marvel Universe is a trilogy of Iron Man stories by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, in which Iron Man and Dr. Doom visit Dark Ages Camelot (published in 1981), King Arthur's revival in the future (published in 1989), and have an adventure searching for Excalibur in the present-day (2008).
  • In the first post Heroes Reborn Avengers story arc, the reunited Avengers fight Morgan Le Fey who uses the Scarlet Witch to transform reality into an alternate Medieval version where she is the absolute ruler.
    • Morgan Le Fay is a recurring supervillainess. In the Bronze Age, she was mostly Spider Woman's archenemy. These days she'll pop up and give any superhero a hard time. She uses her son Mordred as her dragon.
• In one The Phantom comic, it was revealed that one of the ancestors of the Phantom was a Knight of the Round Table.
• In Camelot 3000, Arthur and Merlin return in the year 3000. The knights are reincarnated in various forms (Tristan is female, Perceval is a grotesque mutant).
• Matt Wagner's Mage The Hero Discovered and Mage The Hero Defined utilizes Kevin Matchstick as King Arthur reborn, Edsel as the Lady of the Lake, Mirth as Merlin, et al. The Fisher King, the Marhault Ogre, Crom Cruich and the Wild Hunt put in appearances, often with some Modernisation.
• The eponymous Witchblade is the feminine counterpart to Excalibur.
• Don Rosa's Donald Duck story "The Once and Future Duck" has Donald, his nephews, and Gyro Gearloose traveling back in time to meet King Arthur... only this Arthur is a lot closer to the historical figure that may have inspired the legends. Once again, Don Rosa shows his work.
• Batman: Dark Knight of the Round Table was an Elseworlds story featuring Batman as...a Knight of the Round Table.
• Caliber is a comic series that transports the Arthurian Mythos to The Wild West. A magic gun replaces Excalibur, a Native American Shaman stands in for Merlin, etc, etc.
• In Hellboy The Wild Hunt, Hellboy meets Morgana Le Fay of the Arthurian mythos, and discovers that his mother was the last remaining descendent of King Arthur, via the daugher of Mordred, and so he is the rightful king of Britain, as well as Hell. After some hesitation, he takes up Excalibur to call together an army of "The Noble Dead of Britain" to combat Nimue/The Morrigan's Chaotic Evil army of The Fair Folk.
• The Muppets King Arthur - Kermit as Arthur, Rowlf as Merlin, Piggy as Morgana, Camilla the Chicken as Guenevere and Gonzo as Lancelot. The twist is that the Arthur/Morgana and Guenevere/Lancelot pairings are stable, there's no Love Triangle and they all live Happily Ever After. The Lemony Narrator notes that this isn't how it's supposed to go, but there we are.
• Part of the backstory of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen includes King Arthur and Camelot, which is mentioned several times in the source material. The major addition to the mythos is that one of the Leagues members, the immortal genderchanger Orlando, was present not only when King Arthur was crowned, but was also part of the Round Table, and, after surviving the final battle, salvages Excalibur from the battlefield, which remains a treasured possesion of his/hers, until present day.
• Dracula vs. King Arthur: In which Dracula is transported to his timeline and begins a conquest to take over Camelot, turning many of Arthur's knights and even his wife along the way.

Film

• The Sword in the Stone, a Disney animated version of the first book of T.H. White's The Once and Future King.
• Lancelot du Lac, a deglamorized telling of the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot story by Robert Bresson
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail is essentially a parody of various facets of the King Arthur legend, the Round Table, and medieval fiction in general. Ironically, because one of the Pythons was in fact an Arthurian scholar, this film is at times also one of the most accurate cinematic representations of the myths. For instance, it is the only film to properly depict Lancelot as he is written in Malory. No, really -- Malory's Lancelot is a mentally unstable berserker prone to slaughtering innocents at almost no provocation, then collapsing in abject apologies afterward. Spamalot, the film's musical adaption, makes him Invisible to Gaydar, which is...tangential from Malory, to say the least. (Other writers were apparently more Ho Yay-oriented with Lance.)
  • It also features an Original Generation character by the name of 'Sir Robin', whose defining feature is his cowardice and of course Played for Laughs.
• John Boorman's weird and haunting Excalibur is often considered one of the best modern versions to play the myth mostly straight, explicitly setting the story in a mythical version of The Dark Ages and surrounding it with a mysterious sort of magic.
• Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a 1984 film starring Sean Connery as the Green Knight and based on the poem of the same name.
• The Fisher King sets a semi-symbolic Grail Quest in modern Manhattan.
• First Knight deals with the whole Arthur/Lancelot/Guenevere love triangle.
• King Arthur (2004), in the Dark Ages setting. A bit of a flop, it was infamous for a poster that gave flat chested Keira Knightley what can only be called Photoshop surgery on her breasts. It's unusual among popular portrayals for having Arthur as a Roman officer. It was also unusual for claiming to be Very Loosely Based on a True Story. The writers studied up on the various candidates for the historical Arthur and settled on a "historical" account (actually written several hundred years after the events supposedly took place) that the public are generally unfamiliar with, namely that Arthur was the commander of a legion of displaced Sarmatians, Trapped Behind Enemy Lines and Fighting For a Homeland, who became leader of the Britons after the fact. Ironically they got it from both sides for their trouble, in part because they decided to mix up an unfamiliar historical portrayal with newly bizarre Hollywoodisms, such as the aforementioned Kiera Knightley as Guinevere, a blue, Breast Plated Pictish (!) Warrior Princess.

Literature

• Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene contains a barely recognizable version of Arthur.
• Alfred Tennyson's Idylls of the King, a series of long poems, was very influential in the 19th century.
• William Morris wrote quite a few poems about Arthurian characters.
• Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
• T. H. White's The Once and Future King.
• C. S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength brings back Merlin as a person who trod the line between light and darkness when the distinction was less sharp. Both the heroes and villains are concerned about which side he'll be on when he awakens. It also depicts "Pendragon" as a divine title, now held by one of the heroes, and implies that it descends from "Numinor".
• The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner conflates Norse and Arthurian myth with real places in England. The cave with the sleeping Knights (and their horses) is a local legend in Alderley. Well worth reading.
• Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliff takes the legend back to its roots, including partly Romanized Britons fighting off invading "Sea Wolf" Saxon raiders, the difficulty in gathering and maintaining mounted warriors, horses barely big enough to carry large men and saddles without stirrups, near-starvation every winter, ambiguous mysticism and superstition regarding both curses and the Hill Folk, rare chainmail armor stolen from enemy war chiefs in place of "shining armor", and a dilapidated ex-Roman hill fort replacing "Camelot".
• The Dark Is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper. Most specifically The Grey King and Silver on the Tree the fourth and fifth in the series, respectively. Arthur, himself, makes only minute appearances in the series but many aspects reveal a heavy Arthurian influence (with a few events being direct consequences of the Arthurian Legends). And, of course, there's Uncle Merry.
• Mary Stewart's Crystal Cave (and its sequels) tell the story of Arthur from Merlin's perspective.
  • The point of view changes to Mordred for The Wicked Day. There is also a "side story," The Prince and the Pilgrim.
• One of the more popular modern versions of the Arthur legend is the The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and its sequence of novels, a retelling from the point of view of feminist neopaganism.
• Phyllis Ann Karr's The Idylls of the Queen (a title playing on Tennyson's Idylls of the King) is a retelling of part of Malory's Le Morte Darthur as a murder mystery, using Kay as the Narrator/detective and Mordred as his sidekick.
• Gillian Bradshaw's "Down the Long Wind" trilogy, containing Hawk of May, Kingdom of Summer, and In Winter's Shadow, follows in the footsteps of Sutcliff, casting the story in terms of historicity, with sub-Roman Arthurian forces and messy political and relationship tangles. However, she also includes elements of the supernatural, focusing on the character of Gawain (called here by the Welsh name Gwalchmai, another Sutcliff parallel) and his battle against the forces of Darkness summoned by his mother Morgan, and his alliegance to the forces of Light (capital letters firmly in place). The first two books focus on Gawain's journey, and he continues as a major figure in the final volume, but Guenevere (called Gwynhwyfar in the trilogy) takes the role of viewpoint character.
• In The Dark Tower novels by Stephen King, Mid-World has a mythical figure called "Arthur Eld" who is largely equivalent to King Arthur. The barrels and handles of Roland's guns are said to have been forged from the blade and hilt of his Excalibur. Roland is in fact a descendant of this Arthur, and has a son named Mordred, which is a fitting name for the unhappy young half-demon.
• The Grail Quest Solo Fantasy by JH Brennan books were Choose Your Own Adventure books where the main character is instead a farm boy turned knight (with the mind of the reader implanted in him). Merlin would send him off on tongue-in-cheek adventures.
• Stephen Lawhead's books, beginning with Taliesin, have Celtic mythology being mixed with Atlantean (clearly Greek-influenced) mythology and is written from a strongly Christian perspective.
• Peter David wrote a series of books with King Arthur set in the present day. The first book, Knight Life, had Arthur (using the name "Arthur Penn") Schwarzenegger his way into the office of Mayor of New York City. The second book had him quit being President to find the Holy Grail. And the third had the simple plan of his using the Grail to produce a healing tonic.
• The Power of One and its sequel Tandia by Bryce Courtenay borrow heavily from Arthurian Myth, even though it's about a South African boxer during the beginnings of Apartheid.
• Teresa Edgerton's Green Lion trilogy has strong Arthurian overtones, particularly the Backstory in which the kingmaker wizard Glastyn brought the heir of the High King out of obscurity after an interregnum. The current High King established the Order of St. Mark as a knightly order supposedly based on merit. By the opening of the first book, however, Glastyn has left the Standard Royal Court, turning over his job to his young apprentice, and the king and most of his older knights have stopped going on quests and aren't paying enough attention to their respective jobs of running The Kingdom and keeping order.
• Many of the characters in the Wheel of Time series and much of the underlying skeleton of the story are adapted from Arthurian myth: Egwene Al'Vere (Guinevere), Morgase (Morgawse), Elayne (Elaine of Carbonnek), Nynaeve (Nineve), Rand Al'Thor (Arthur) and many, many others. Also, sa'angreal (a rare type of magical artifact) = "Sangreal" = The Holy Grail.
  • One particular sa'angreal is Callandor, the Sword in the Stone - that is, the Sword in the fortress called the Stone of Tear - and Rand draws it.
  • The most obvious Arthur parallel would be Artur Hawkwing, the legendary great king whose middle name was Paendrag, and whose descendants, at least, are returning across the Aryth Ocean.
  • The perhaps most interestingly named character is Galad Damodred - named after Galahad and Mordred? - who is a Religious Zealot and Rand's half-brother through their shared mother, Tigraine.
  • Some parallels can be seen between Elayne of Andor (whose symbol is a golden lily) and Elaine of Astolat, the lily maid.
• Jack Whyte's A Dream Of Eagles series follows several Celtic, Roman, and Frank characters as they weave a "could have been, realistic" take on the Mythology.
• In The Magic Treehouse books, one of the major characters is Morgan Le Fay, who helped the kids in disguise for the first four books. They had no idea until she revealed herself near the end of Book 4.
• Terry Pratchett's short story "Once and Future" features a time traveller stuck in the past re-enacting the King Arthur legend. In a twist, the king who pulls the sword from the stone happens to be a woman.
• Bernard Cornwell's The Warlord Chronicles tell a largely historically plausible version of the story with lots of Saxon mooks. The same author's Grail Quest series moves the quest for the Holy Grail up to the time of the Hundred Years' War, by which time Arthur is a legend, claimed by the English, Welsh, Scottish and Bretons as one of their own. It also subverts a number of traditional aspects, especially in regard to Mordred (who is Arthur's half brother and his king) and Lancelot (who is a treacherous coward).
• Arthurian mythology is apparently true in the world of Harry Potter, which is hardly surprising given that the series is, after all, a Fantasy Kitchen Sink. In the first book, two of Harry's first Chocolate Frog cards are of Merlin and Morgan le Fay and throughout the series there are references to a medal of valor known as the "Order of Merlin", but we're not really given any details beyond that -- except that he's a Slytherin. Merlin seems to be a wizarding version of an extreme Memetic Badass and/or Folk Hero, as wizards generally swear by him in a fashion similar to how people swear by Jesus ("Merlin's Beard", "by Merlin", "Merlin!", "what in the name of Merlin", etc.) However, he was probably not a religious/holy figure, as not all references are reverent ("Merlin's Pants", "what in the name of Merlin's saggy left —")
  • Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley may or may not be named after Guinevere ("Ginevra" is the Italian form of "Guinevere"), which would be... interesting what with her father being named "Arthur". And then there's her brother Percy (Percival?).
• I am Mordred by Nancy Springer tells the story of King Arthur from Mordred's perspective (duh). Written as a young adults novel, it touches upon nearly all of the main Arthurian characters and heavily plays on the dichotomous themes of destiny and free will. Maybe Mordred isn't all that bad and maybe King Arthur isn't the paradigm of honor and chivalry he's always portrayed as. She also wrote a prequel, following Morgan in her early years.
• Gerald Morris's The Squire's Tales retells a number of Arthurian legends.
• Kevin Crossley-Holland's Arthur trilogy: The Seeing Stone, At the Crossing-Places and King of the Middle March retells the Arthurian legend and several others alongside the story of Arthur de Caldicot, heir to the Mediaeval estate of Catmole, as he travels to the Holy Land on crusade.
• Jo Walton's series The King's Peace and The King's Name features the King-Arthur-equivalent of the fantasy world it's set in. Some readers have found it confusing that not everything in the story is the direct counterpart of something in Arthurian legend, especially the protagonist, who is an entirely new character.
• Meg Cabot's Avalon High. It's actually not bad, or better than a lot of teen fare out there, at least.
• In The Dresden Files, it is pretty much confirmed that Micheal's sword, Esperaccius, is Excalibur. Also, Harry's master and maternal grandfather Ebenezer McCoy was taught by a line of master wizards whose methods descended from Merlin himself.
• Douglas Clegg's Mordred, Bastard Son is another retelling of the legend from Mordred's point of view, casting Arthur as an incestuous rapist and Morgan and Morgause as insanely violent trauma victims. Oh, and Mordred's gay and in love with Lancelot.
• Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve is a new Demythtified version of the story. The main character is Gwyna, the real Lady of the Lake, who is a slave girl taken in by the bard Myrddin (pronounced almost exactly like Merlin), and helps Arthur to deceive people into thinking he's a destined hero. Most of the names return to something akin to their medieval versions, with Kay being Cei and Bedivere being Bedwyr.
• The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck. A modern-English adaptation of the Arthurian legend, based on the Winchester Manuscript text of Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur. Sadly, Steinbeck died before finishing and it currently ends with the tale of Lancelot.
• According to Night Watch, Arthur was a not-particularly-nice puppet king of Merlin, the most powerful Dark Other of all time.
• In Dragons in Our Midst, the main character, Billy Bannister, is the second coming of Arthur. The entire plot is built around the Arthur/Christianity principle.
• David Lodge's satirical Campus Novel Small World uses the Grail legend as a frame for the story of academics on the conference circuit. Characters include leading professor Arthur Kingfisher (Fisher King, geddit?) and the Irish Innocent Abroad Persse Mc Garrigle (Percival/Parzifal) and the Grail itself is a lavishly-funded sinecure.
• Shanna Swendson's Enchanted Inc. features Merlin as the CEO of the company.
• Parke Godwin's Firelord and Beloved Exile, which use the post-Roman warlord versions of the story. What little magic appears can be handwaved away, and The Fair Folk are cast as the pre-Celtic inhabitants of Britain. Notable in that the second book deals with the aftermath of the legends, following Guenevere through a fragmenting Britain after Arthur's death.
• In the 4th novel in Disgaea novel series Laharl and Flonne travel back in time and meet King Arthur.
• John C. Wright's War of Dreaming delves into the Arthurian mythos, and includes Merlin as a character in the present day. It notably re-examines certain aspects of the story, such as what the heirs of Arthur would do if they were actually around.
• David Drake's early novel The Dragon Lord: Drake has commented that the personality of his Arthur -- a military genius, but vicious and twisted -- is a cross between Alexander the Great and Adolf Hitler.
• The Mists of Avalon, is a 1981 Book Series written by of Marion Zimmer Bradley's 1981 book, that focus on the feminine characters of the legend.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink series The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel uses Sir Palomedes the Saracen Knight, one of the more obscure Arthurian characters.
• Adrienne Martine-Barnes' Space Opera The Dragon Rises supposes that the principal characters are immortal spirits who every so often through the millennia involuntarily take over people's bodies and proceed to play out the story again, possibly with some ability to vary the events. In the current cycle, "Arthur" is the admiral of a space fleet, and "Guinevere" has been Made a Slave and given to him, as a way of punishing her treasonous father....
• In Andre Norton's Merlin's Mirror, Arthur, like Merlin and Nimue, was produced by Ancient Astronauts artificially inseminating his mother with an "improved" line of humanity.
• Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit is a Historical Fantasy novel by Mercedes Lackey inspired by a Welsh tradition that King Arthur had not one but three different queens, all named Gwenhwyfar ("Guinevere"). The protagonist is the third and youngest, the Action Girl daughter of a Celtic king.

Live-Action TV

• The Fantasy Island episode "King Arthur in Mr. Roarke's Court", which brings Arthur (played by Robert Mandan), onto that 70s island, leaving a guest whose fantasy was to meet King Arthur (Tommy Smothers) to keep him out of trouble 'till Roarke can put him back in his proper place and time.
• The Adventures Of Sir Lancelot, the first UK series made in colour.
• Arthur of the Britons was series featuring a realistic Arthur as a warlord fighting Saxon invaders in Dark Ages Britain.
• Mr Merlin: A modernized Merlin seeks out a present-day hero to teach.
• In the Doctor Who serial Battlefield, Merlin is revealed to be a future regeneration of the Doctor.
• MacGyver, episode "Good Knight MacGyver": As he is prone to do, Mac gets clocked on the head and finds himself transported to King Arthur's court, where he saves King Arthur, discovers Merlin to be little better than a stage magician, clears the good name of his ancestor, prevents the early discovery of gunpowder by Morgan La Fey, and finally reveals his own first name.
• Babylon 5: "A Late Delivery From Avalon", and other references. In that episode King Arthur himself arrives on the station but turns out in fact to be a gunner whose actions triggered the devastating Minbari war in the show's Backstory. He adopted the King Arthur persona as a way to cope with his guilt. Arthurian symbolism makes sporadic appearances throughout B5 and Crusade in the form of the council of races, and the sword and shield on the emblem.
• Kaamelott: a comical French series, close in spirit to Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  • At least in the first seasons, it focused on everyday life and mundane events at Kaamelott/Camelot (though it also incuded mythological/historical jokes from all over the middle ages.) Most characters were made to be really, er, obtuse.
• Stargate SG-1: Merlin is revealed to be an Ancient who had stayed on Earth to develop a defense against the Ori. Camelot is on another planet, and SG-1 finds the Sangraal, a piece of Merlin's anti-Ori weapon.
  • Morgan le Fay was also an Ancient, sent to stop Merlin. In a subversion of the mythology, she ended up aiding him (and SG-1).
• Merlin: A 2008 BBC Saturday Night series focusing on the early life of the wizard.
• Merlin: A 1998 miniseries starring Sam Neill in which Queen Mab figures in place of Morgaine Le Fay, brings Celtic mythology into play, similar to:
• The Mists of Avalon, a 2001 miniseries adaptation of Marion Zimmer Bradley's 1981 book, with pro-feminist subversions.
• The Goodies protect a descendent of King Arthur from having Camelot seized by a greedy land developer. Because medieval law still applies on Arthur's land Hilarity Ensues as both sides resort to torture and jousting to force the issue. Gags include Excalibur being used as a club (because no-one can remove the stone from the end) and Ye Secret Weapon -- a giant magnet that proves highly effective against metal armor and swords.
• Camelot: A 2011 series co-produced by Starz and GK-TV.
• An episode of The Time Tunnel of course had the main characters drop into Arthur's Britain — while Merlin appeared in the control room to paralyze the technicians and make sure they couldn't yank the travelers out until they'd helped Arthur with his current problem.

Music

• Led Zeppelin's "The Battle of Evermore" contains numerous references to Arthurian legend.
• Rick Wakeman's Concept Album The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
  • Various edits of the opening track, Arthur, which tells us briefly of Arthur's ascendency, have been used by The BBC to herald every general election since 1979 (with one exception).
• Blind Guardian's "A Past and Future Secret" is about King Arthur and the fall of Camelot. "Mordred's Song" is, unsurprisingly, about Mordred. "The Maiden and the Minstrel Knight" is about Tristan and Isolde. The singer's other band Demons and Wizards has "Winter of Souls," which is also about the conflict between Arthur and Mordred.
• Ayreon's "The Final Experiment" involves the protagonist going to King Arthur's court and getting on Merlin's bad side.
• Grave Digger's Concept Album Excalibur is based on legend of King Arthur.
• A large portion of the songs by Heather Dale. Among others:
  • Mordred's Lullaby is about Morguase telling baby Mordred how he's going to grow up and kill Arthur.
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is about. . . Gawain fighting the Green Knight.
  • Kingsword Go ahead and guess what this one's about.
• There is a power metal band called Kamelot. While they haven't really played on Arthurian themes in any of their recent work, their fourth studio album featured a song titled "The Shadow of Uther". And their third album was titled Siege Perilous.
• "Blood of the Kings" (from album Armageddon) by Ariya deals mostly with the perception of the events and spirit of the legend. It's not optimistic about the likely outcome of his return.

Newspaper Comics

• Prince Valiant.

Tabletop Games

Role-Playing Games

• King Arthur Pendragon, of course. It's there in the title. Heavily based on Malory's Le Morte Darthur but not afraid to plunder other sources if need be, and notable for magic causing the timeline to advance rapidly from the Dark Ages (complete with marauding Picts and Saxons) right through to the 15th century during the course of Arthur's reign allowing just about any Arthurian tale from any of myriad versions of the myth to be fit in somewhere. The Great Pendragon Campaign explicitly identifies the phases of Arthur's reign with periods in the history of England, from the Norman Conquest to the Wars of the Roses, in terms of the political situation and the available technology.
• GURPS Camelot, which includes rules for three possible settings: "Traditional", "Historical", and "Cinematic" with the option of mixing-and-matching depending on what you want to be accurate mythology, what you want to be realistic Dark Ages, and what you want to be Rule of Cool. All three Camelots are referenced in GURPS Infinite Worlds, which notes that the "Historical" Arthur (Artotrius Riothamus) is one of many Arthurs found in otherwise non-mythic timelines, fitting just about any theory as to who the "historic" Arthur was.

On any parallel with a current date between 410 and 660 A.D., the Patrol by now routinely expects to discover the “real Arthur” in a North Welsh hill fort, a Scottish border wall, or a detachment of Roman cavalry.

• TSR's Amazing Engine game, Once And Future King supplement. The game takes place during the 46th century (4,500-4,600 A.D.) throughout the Earth's solar system, with everyone involved (including King Arthur and his knights) using high tech devices and weaponry. Merlin is a computer program with Artificial Intelligence. How did this come about? Scientists created clones using DNA from 5th century British warriors and programmed their brains with the principles of chivalry. The clones rebelled against their creators and took over the solar system by force.

War Games

• The Kingdom of Bretonnia Warhammer is heavily based on Arthurian myth mixed with medieval France for good measure. Not only is this blatantly evident in the chivalric codes and customs of its knights (including a recurring motif modeled on the Holy Grail), but also in the realm's devotion to the "Lady of the Lake."

Theatre

• Henry Purcell wrote the "semi-opera" King Arthur, or The British Worthy (1691), at least one number of which, the Cold Song, is popular today. The libretto by John Dryden dumps pretty much all characters apart from Arthur and Merlin in favour of a new cast of new characters; Arthur ends up marrying Emmeline.
• Richard Wagner's Parsifal is somewhat loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Arthurian romance Parzival. Wagner's earlier Lohengrin also tangentially touches the Grail myth. Note that Wagner moves the action from the 5th to the 10th century A.D.
• Lerner and Loewe's musical Camelot, an adaptation of White's The Once and Future King focusing on the Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot Love Triangle.
• Eric Idle and John Du Prez's musical Spamalot, an adaptation of Monty Python And The Holy Grail focusing on being very silly.

Video Games

• One of the early Sierra games was Conquests of Camelot: The Search for the Grail, involving King Arthur's quest for the Holy Grail and the three knights that went missing in search of it. It combines almost every aspect of the Arthurian mythos, and naturally, has room for several Monty Python references.
• Though they don't appear in the story proper, the exceedingly powerful Knights of the Round summon in Final Fantasy VII is clearly based on Arthur and his knights.
  • The name is a reference to Knights of the Round, an old Arthurian-themed side-scrolling beat-em-up.
• Backyard Skateboarding has the unlockable Excaliboard (obviously based on Excalibur) and mentions of the Knights of the Round Table in the Medieval European Fantasy level, Merry Old Englandland.
• King Arthur: The Role-Playing Wargame is... more or less that, yeah.
• Warcraft‍'‍s Prince Arthas is a inversion of King Arthur. The sword he pulled from a stone (actually, magic ice or something) was very powerful, and marked him as destined for a throne. But it stole his soul, and the throne in question was that of an undead Evil Overlord rather than the throne of The Kingdom he was born to. He's advised by a wizard with an odd life cycle, like Merlin, but the weird thing about this wizard is that he's a necromancer who Arthas killed and later helped come back as a lich. He disbanded the Silver Hand, an order of paladins, and while he later founded an order of death knights, which is an inversion on more than one level: not only are they ignoble and unholy but it wasn't even a new idea or original in-world, making it the reverse of both the Round Table and the Silver Hand.
• Tears to Tiara is a prequel of sorts in an Alternate Universe, showing the rise of King Arthur with the help of a Demon King, Arawn.
• Tomb Raider: Legend deconstructs the King Arthur myth by making Excalibur in reality a really, really ancient artifact that predates the Arthur myth and is mentioned in various other myths and legends. "Every culture's got one." Insufferable Genius Alister constantly states how unlikely the legend is to be true, while Lara remains optimistic and Zip just thinks Excalibur is a cool sword and constantly confuses it with the sword in the stone. When he realises this is irritating Alister greatly, he continues to do this deliberately. Lara approves. In the end, it turns out that Excalibur is real, as is King Arthur and Avalon, and Lara gets to use the sword as a weapon on the final boss.
  • Sent up by the real location of the Sword being hidden beneath a fake, theme-park-ride version of Arthurian myth.
• The Arthurian motifs in Ace Combat Zero deserve more than a passing mention and are significant enough for people to be able to write papers on them ? just check the page.
• Sonic and the Black Knight involves Sonic the Hedgehog as a Fish Out of Water as he is summoned the legends of Arthur, for he must save the kingdom from Arthur himself, who is now Brainwashed and Crazy, with a new getup akin to Sauron and a very unique sword, and is ruling the land tyrannically as the eponymous Black Knight. Oh, and Merlin has a grand daughter in Merlina. And other Sonic characters serve as the likeness for Arthurian characters: Knuckles is Gawain, Shadow is Lancelot, and Blaze is... Percival? Tails being a blacksmith and Amy being the Lady of the Lake makes more sense, though.
• There are several references in the Fire Emblem video game series to the Arthurian legends. In Fire Emblem: Blazing Sword there is a Lord called Uther who has a brother named Hector which may be a reference to Ector, Arthur's foster father. Also in Blazing Sword, there is a tome called Excalibur. Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance has Gaiwain, also known as Greiland an early sword called Ettard could be named after the Lady Ettard. In the sequel to POR, Radiant Dawn, there is a mage called Pelleas which is the name of the knight who loved the Lady Ettard. There are also the twin swords Ragnell and Alondite. Ragnell was the name of Sir Gawain's wife, Alondite is supposedly the Japanese pronounciation for Lancelot's sword, Arondight.

Visual Novels

• In Fate/stay night, Saber is a female Arthur. The prequel Fate/Zero also has Lancelot as Berserker, bearing the appropriate grudge against Arturia/Saber. The Alternate Universe Fate/Extra also has Gawain as an enemy-exclusive Saber (your Saber is a gender-flipped Nero).

Web Comics

• Arthur, King of Time and Space presents different perspectives on the King Arthur story as seen from different times and places ? the basic Heroic Fantasy England, A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Far Away, Present Day America, and so on.

Western Animation

• The Legend Of Prince Valiant
• King Arthur and the Knights of Justice had a modern professional American football team transported back in time to fill the roles of the knights of the round table.
• Gargoyles was a series where All Myths Are True - including King Arthur. A proposed Spin-Off, Pendragon, would've followed him in his search for Merlin and then the Holy Grail (as well as addressing the fact that he woke up before Britain needed him).
• Blazing Dragons, series created by Monty Pythons' Terry Jones stages a parodic re-enaction of the Arthurian myth where all the characters are replaced by Punly-named Dragon (King Allfire, Castle of Camel-hot, Sir Loungelot and so on and so forth)
• Dragon Booster features a hero called Artha Penn (and his brother Lance) whose arch foe is named Moordryd Paynn.
• King Arthur's Disasters a humorous, anachronistic, British Cartoon about a moronic King Arthur's failed attempts to woo the spoilt Princess Guinevere.
• Thundercats had an episode where Mumm-Ra disguised himself as Arthur to fool the Lady of the Lake into giving him Excalibur, the greatest sword that ever existed, so he could finally defeat Lion-O and the Sword of Omens. It almost worked, but then he made the mistake of revealing his identity, prompting Merlin to show up and kick his ass.